Charlie Hebdo timeline: how events have unfolded

 

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This article titled “Charlie Hebdo timeline: how events have unfolded” was written by Luke Harding, for The Guardian on Friday 9th January 2015 23.23 UTC

Wednesday 7 January, 11.30am local time

Two gunmen – Chérif Kouachi and his brother Saïd – storm the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. They shoot dead several people including the magazine’s editor and some of its cartoonists. Five minutes later, they emerge on to the street and get into their car to escape. They drive north and exchange fire with a police vehicle. One officer, Ahmed Merabet, is wounded in the shootout; a Kouachi brother then runs up and shoots him in the head. In total 12 people are killed in the attacks.

Gunmen flee the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Photograph: Reuters TV/Reuters

Midday

The gunmen crash their car and hijack another vehicle, calmly forcing the driver out. They tell him: “If the media ask you anything, tell them it’s al-Qaida in Yemen.” They drive off from Paris’s 19th arrondissement in a grey Clio. Paris is put on the highest state of alert.

Paris is put on a high state of alert. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

6pm

The people of Paris gather on Place de la République for a vigil, one of many around France and the world.

Demonstrators gather at the Place de la Republique on Wednesday. Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Thursday 8 January, 8am

News of another attack in Paris, with a policewoman – 25-year-old trainee Clarissa Jean-Phillipe – shot dead in the southern suburb of Montrouge. Police initially believe the shooting is unrelated, but later say that the Montrouge gunmen and the Kouachi brothers knew each other

Police inspect the shooting scene in Montrouge, Paris, after a policewoman was shot dead. Photograph: Imago / Barcroft Media/PanoramiC

10.30am

Reports suggest the two suspects, heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, are seen driving north through Picardy. The pair rob a petrol station north-east of Paris. They drive off with assault rifles and rocket launchers visible in the back of their getaway car. A massive manhunt takes place in a large wooded area nearby.

French police special forces in Corcy, near Villers-Cotterets, north-east of Paris, where the two suspects were spotted in a gray Renault Clio. Photograph: Francois Nascimbeni/AFP/Getty Images

Friday 9 January, 8.10am

The gunmen resurface and hijack a grey Peugeot 206 in the village of Montagny-Sainte-Félicité. A village teacher spots the men as they seize her vehicle. She says they are carrying weapons, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The pair dump the Renault Clio they were driving earlier after it runs out of petrol

SWAT police officers patrol in the village of Longpont, north-east of Paris, in search of the suspects. Photograph: Michel Spingler/AP

9am

There is a shoot-out between the suspects and police on the N2 motorway. No one is hurt. The brothers drive into an industrial estate in the small village of Dammartin-en-Goële, 40km north-east of Paris. They take refuge in a printing works. A massive police operation gets underway involving armed officers and helicopters

A police helicopter and the French Special Police Forces wait in fields surrounding an industrial estate where it is thought the suspects are holding a hostage. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

11.30am

Police close in on the printing complex, Création Tendance Découverte. There are reports that one hostage is inside. According to French TV, he is a 26-year-old male. French special forces take up positions on the roof of surrounding buildings. Charles de Gaulle airport, 8kms away, is partly closed.

French gendarmes block the access to Dammartin-en-Goele. Photograph: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images

1.30pm

Reports that an armed man has taken a hostage in a Jewish grocery store at Porte de Vincennes in Paris.

French police take position by the kosher grocery store in Saint-Mande, eastern Paris. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images

2pm

Reports say the man suspected of killing a policewoman in Paris on Thursday is the hostage taker at the supermarket, and is holding around five people. Initial reports say people have been injured, but police later say this is not the case.

Special forces gather outside a kosher supermarket in east Paris. Photograph: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images

2.30pm

Police name two people wanted in connection with the case. They are Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, the first of whom is reported as the supermarket hostage taker. He has a long criminal history.

Hayat Boumeddiene and Amedy Coulibaly. Photograph: Prefecture de police/EPA

Just before 5pm

Shots and explosions are heard at the siege at Dammartin-en-Goële, and heavily-armed counter-terror officers are seen moving in. The Charlie Hebdo gunmen are reported to have been killed and the hostage there freed.

Smoke rises as special forces enter the building on an industrial estate where suspects linked to the Charlie Hebdo killings were holding a hostage. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

5.15pm

Loud bangs are heard at the site of the supermarket siege, with pictures showing some hostages being led out by police. Shortly afterwards, reports say the hostage takers at Dammartin-en-Goële, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, were killed in the assault, as was the supermarket hostage taker, named in reports again as Amedy Coulibaly.

7pm

The French president, François Hollande, confirms that four hostages were killed and four wounded in the supermarket in Paris.

Special forces launch an assault on the kosher supermarket in Paris. Photograph: Gabrielle Chatelain/AFP/Getty Images

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Charlie Hebdo timeline: how events have unfolded